‘Beautiful Mind’ Nobel math genius killed in taxi crash

Renowned Princeton mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate, John Forbes Nash Jr., whose life story was described in the Oscar-winning movie ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ was killed in a taxi crash together with his wife on the New Jersey Turnpike on Saturday.

The driver of the taxi lost control of the vehicle as he tried to
pass another car on the road and crashed into the guard rail,
Gregory Williams, a state police sergeant, said.

John and Alicia Nash were ejected from the car, Williams said,
adding that "it doesn't appear that they were wearing
seatbelts.”

The driver of the taxi was extracted from the crashed vehicle and
flown to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

One of the passengers of the second car involved in the incident,
which also crashed into the guard rail, was treated for neck
pain, the officer added.

John Nash was 86 years old. His wife, Alicia, was 82. They were
married for 60 years.

The crash occurred as the couple were on their way home from the
airport after making a trip to Norway.

Nash and his longtime colleague, Louis Nirenberg, were awarded
the Abel Prize in mathematics by Norwegian King Harald V in Oslo
on Tuesday for their study of nonlinear partial differential
equations.

After learning about the tragedy, Nirenberg said Nash was a
“wonderful mathematician” and person.

Hollywood actor, Russell Crowe, who was nominated for an Oscar
for portraying Nash on the big screen, wrote on Twitter that he
was “stunned” by the couple’s passing.